There are many known approaches to reordering of pages (and parts of pages) of electronically stored information.
Most document management applications provide a `clipboard` to allow items to be `cut and pasted` from one location to another via the clipboard. An example of such an application is Microsoft Windows. Traditionally the clipboard is not represented on the screen so that the user is not aware of what is on the clipboard at any given time or whether there is anything on the clipboard at all. The item which is `cut` traditionally disappears without any indication to the user of what has happened to it.
One possibility is to display multiple full pages at the same time. For example, the screen is divided into quarters each showing a reduced-size image of a page. Reordering of pages can be achieved by moving pages between the different quarters of the screen. A disadvantage of this approach is that no page is shown to full size.
The Tandy Zoomer allows pages to be reordered from an index page. This approach has the drawback of not allowing the user to see the full contents of the pages being reordered. Furthermore, the index page needs to be accessed before page movement can occur which is rather counter-intuitive for the user.
A device for storing and displaying pages of electronic information is described in International Patent Application No. PCT/GB91/01984 (Eden Group Limited). That device is a notebook computer with a user interface which simulates a ringbinder. A user of the device is able to perform page management functions on selected pages. When a page is selected, by the user selecting a ring of the ring binder when that page is uppermost, it is shown reduced in size pending selection by the user of the particular page management function to be performed.
The shrinking of the page is not naturalistic and has the disadvantage that the shrunken page obscures the middle of the underlying page.